Sometimes it is not about how a team plays but whether they get the victory. That was how the Taft varsity boys basketball team was feeling Friday morning when they defeated the West Vikings 56-39 in the first game of the Taft High tournament.

With the victory, Taft improves to 4-6 on the season.

Edtmer Medel got the Wildcats going with a layup 57 seconds into the seven minute first quarter. The Wildcats followed with a 4-2 run to lead 6-2. Taft would later in the quarter build an 11-5 lead but in both cases West countered with a three-pointer to close the gap. Danny Romo followed up with three pointer with 30 seconds left but the Vikings answered with a three-pointer right before the buzzer.

The Wildcats nearly put the game away in the second quarter by holding West to four points. Meanwhile, the offense answered with 19. At one point in the second quarter Taft held a 27-15 lead on Steven Gee's layup.

West fought back to cut the deficit to 13 early in the third quarter but the Vikings were held to five points the rest of the quarter. Taft on the other hand rebounded by scoring 12 points to lead by 20 at the end of the quarter.

Like the previous quarter, the Vikings fought back to trail by 12 with 5:04 left, but West wouldn't score their final six points until the final 1:21 of the game. In the meantime, Taft scored 11 points to win by 17.